The griffin was a common feature of "animal
style" Scythian gold. It
was said to inhabit the Scythian steppes that reached from the
modern Ukraine to central
Asia; there
gold and precious stones were abundant and when strangers
approached to gather the stones, the creatures would leap on them
and tear them to pieces. The Scythians used giant petrified bones found in
this area as proof of the existence of these griffins and thus keep
outsiders away from the gold and precious stones.

Adrienne
Mayor, a classical folklorist, has recently
suggested that these "griffin bones" were actually dinosaurfossils, which are common in
this part of the world. In The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology
in Greek and Roman Times, she makes tentative connections between
the rich fossil beds around the Mediterranean
and across the steppes to the Gobi Desert
and the myths of griffins, centaurs and archaic giants
originating in the Classical world. Mayor draws upon similarities
that exist between the prehistoricProtoceratopsskeletons of the
steppes leading to the Gobi Desert, and the legends of the
gold-hoarding griffin told by nomadic Scythians of the
region.

Ancient Greece

In archaic
Greek art bronze cauldrons fitted with apotropaic bronze griffon
heads ("protomes") with gaping beaks, prominent upstanding ears and
often a finial knop on the skull appear with such regularity that
they are considered a genre, the Griefenkessel, by specialists. The
"griffin cauldrons" are discussed by Ulf Jantzen, Griechische
Griefenkessel (Berlin) 1955. Based on Anatolian
prototypes for bronze cauldrons with animal heads, Jantzen
concluded that the griffon cauldron was a Greek invention of c.700
BC, the earliest examples hammered over moulds rather than cast.
Such griffon cauldrons were developed simultaneously in Samos and in
Etruscan
territories from the earliest 7th through the 6th centuries BC. The
earliest Etruscan example is the famous griffon protomes from the
Barberini Tomb.

In Greek literature, Scythian mythology
is reflected by Hellenic writers' tales of griffins and the
Arimaspi
of distant Scythia near the
cave of Boreas, the North
Wind (Geskleithron), such as were elaborated in the lost archaic
poem of Aristeas of
Proconnesus (7th century BC), Arimaspea. Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones
infer that Aristeas's griffin was, "the bearded vulture or
lammergeyer, a huge bird with a wingspan of nearly three metres
(ten feet), which nests in inaccessible cliffs in the Asiatic
mountains. ... The gold of the region is real enough and is still
mined today." They also suggest that Aristeas conflated the
Scythian griffin with a similar creature - a composite of lion and
eagle or lion and griffon
vulture - already known to Greek culture.

In any case, Aristeas's tales were eagerly
reported by Herodotus (484
BC–c.425 BC) and in Pliny the
Elder's Natural
History (77 AD), among others. Aeschylus
(525–456 BC), in Prometheus Bound (804), has Prometheus warn
Io:
"Beware of the sharp-beaked hounds of Zeus that do not bark,
the gryphons..." In his Description of Greece (1.24.6), Pausanias
(2nd century AD) says, "griffins are beasts like lions, but with
the beak and wings of an eagle." It is not yet clear if its
forelimbs are those of an eagle or of a lion. Although the
description implies the latter, the accompanying illustration is
ambiguous. It was left to the heralds to clarify that.

In heraldry

The griffin is often seen as a charge
in heraldry. According
to the Tractatus de armis of John
de Bado Aureo (late fourteenth century), "A griffin borne in
arms signifies that the first to bear it was a strong pugnacious
man in whom were found two distinct natures and qualities, those of
the eagle and the lion." Since the lion and the eagle were both
important charges in heraldry, it is perhaps surprising that their
combination, the griffin, was also a frequent choice.

Bedingfeld and Gwynn-Jones suggest a far more
bellicose reason for its choice as a charge: That because of the
bitter antipathy between griffins and horses, a griffin borne on a
shield would instill fear in the horses of his opponents. They also
note the first appearance of the griffin in English heraldry, in a
1167 seal of Richard de Redvers, Earl of
Essex. (The variant with the forelimbs of a lion is
distinguished as the opinicus, described below.)

Heraldic griffins are usually shown rearing up,
facing dexter (to the
right of the bearer of the shield)*, standing on one hind leg with
the other hind leg and both forelegs raised (as shown in the image
on the right and those in the gallery below). This posture is
described in the Norman-French heraldic blazon as segreant, a term
usually applied only to griffins (but sometimes also to dragons In
the late 19th century, Sir Henry William Dashwood was granted
supporters: two male griffins Argent [white] gorged with a collar
flory
counter flory. One was also recently granted as a crest in the
arms of the City of Melfort,
Saskatchewan (image).

The term keythong is rarer still. The definitive
instance comes from James
Planché, who notes, under the badge of the Earl of
Ormonde (first creation) as recorded in a College of
Arms manuscript from the reign of Edward
IV, the single contemporary reference: "A pair of keythongs."
Planche's footnote: ''"The word is certainly so written, and I have
never seen it elsewhere. The figure resembles the Male Griffin,
which has no wings, but rays or spikes of gold proceeding from
several parts of his body, and sometimes with two long straight
horns. ­­Vade [see] Parker's Glossary, under Griffin."

At the end of the 20th century the term
keythong'' began to be taken up enthusiastically among adherents of
heraldry - at least, among members of the
Society for Creative Anachronism.

Opinicus

The opinicus is a heraldic beast that differs
from the griffin principally in that all four of its legs are those
of a lion., but is otherwise rare in British heraldry. A modern
example can be found in the arms of Jonathan Munday: Azure an
opinicus rampant Or armed Gules. (Note that it is described as
rampant rather than segreant.)

Other oddities

The "griffin" in the arms of Östergötland
has dragon's wings. This
is essentially a composite of two older arms, one charged with a
lion, the other a dragon.

The arms of the Duchy of
Pomerania features several typical griffins. However, the white
"griffin" in the gules (red) sinister fess (middle right) piece has
a fish's tail - only its
lion's ears confirm that it's a fish-tailed griffin rather than a
fish-tailed eagle.

Similar heraldic beasts

The following heraldic beasts are
not griffins, but might be mistaken for them.

The cockatrice,
the king of the serpents, has a rooster's head, only two legs
(rather like an eagle's or dragon's), dragon's wings, and a
serpent's tail.

In Mercedes
Lackey and Larry Dixon's The Mage Wars Trilogy - The Black
Gryphon (1994), The White Gryphon (1995) and The Silver Gryphon
(1996) - gryphons known as Skandranon, and, later, his son Tadrith
are among the lead characters. In this series gryphons have human
level intelligence and can use magic.

In Tamora
Pierce's Squire, part of the Protector
of the Small quaret, the main character Kel stumbles upon a
baby griffin kidnapped from his parents and is forced to care for
him until they can be found.

In Patricia
McKillip's Song for the Basilisk (1998), a griffin is one of
the book's main characters and appears as a symbol of the ruling
house.

In Collinsfort Village by Joe Ekaitis (2005), a gentlemanly
griffin resides on a mountain overlooking an imaginary Colorado
suburb.

In Bill
Peet's
The Pinkish Purplish Bluish Egg (1984) a dove finds an odd egg,
and raises the griffin that hatches from it. The griffin has the
head of a bald eagle rather than the more usual golden eagle.

In Katherine
Robert's "The Amazon Temple Quest" a gryphon is connected with
the Amazons and it is the one to give them power and to give them
the ability to reproduce without men.

(unknown dates)

In Nick
O'Donohoe's Crossroads series (including The Magic and the
Healing, Under the Healing Sign, and Healing of Crossroads) about
veterinary students called upon to help mythological creatures,
griffins play a significant role.

As a first name and surname

In the mid-1990s, "Griffin"
steadily became more popular as a baby name for boys in the U.S. In
1990, it was ranked 629th. In 2006, it was ranked 254th. Also
rising in popularity is the various other spellings of the name
such as Griffen or Gryphon.

"Griffin" occurs as a surname in English-speaking
countries. It has its origins as an anglicised form of the Irish "Ó
Gríobhtha", "O' Griffin", and "Ó Griffey".

Welsh people who were anglicised, changed the
name to "Griffith" and similar names. This shift is reinforced
where the family has taken canting arms
charged with a griffin.

"Griffin" (and variants in other languages) may
also have been adopted as a surname by other families who used arms
charged with a griffin or a griffin's head (just as the House
of Plantagenet took its name from the badge of a sprig of
broom or
planta genista). This is ostensibly the origin of the Swedish
surname "Grip" (see main
article).

Roller coaster

In 2007, Busch
Gardens Williamsburg opened a themed roller coaster called the
Griffon.
The main feature of the coaster is a vertical drop simulating the
dive of a bird.

Persian firstname

The creature griffin is known as Homa in
Persian. The name Homa is a well-known firstname for girls in Iran
and is also featured as a story in Iranian textbooks for third
graders in the story about Homa who has lost one of her
milkteeth.